Loving the Sun and Family

Russ and I have been pondering how happy we are that we are Angelenos. While we miss our friends in the NW, we are very lucky to live in the land of sunshine, which in "Seattle Language" means lots of visitors. We like to think that everyone really wants to see us, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the sun may have something to do with our ever-inflated aerobed :)

This past week, we were lucky enough to have our "mom" (well, Russ' mom but she's mine too) come to visit. I like to call her "Nancy Pants" and she actually started her visit with MacKenzie (Russ' sister). They arrived via ultra-green mass transit (i.e. the train) early Tuesday and were able to enjoy a couple of fun-filled "girl days". We ate a fantastic lunch at the new-ish Urth cafe and even went to the Ellen Show, which was actually very fun. We were dancing fools and our row almost won t-shirts for our "innovative" dancing abilities :) It would have been even more fun if we would have been guests to show #1000, but settled for show #998 and Michael Douglas. We had a great time and Nancy wins the award for most dedicated visitor yet...she spent at least five hours helping me with a mailing (thanks).

Runyon Canyon Hike

The other great thing about having company is that we are forced to explore places we haven't visited, most notably...restaurants! We tried three new places - Urth Caffe (but I won't go into this one, it is a definite "must" for coffee or lunch), Reservoir in Silverlake (I would recommend) and Church and State in the old Nabisco Loft building downtown (I'd recommend for the cool ambiance and the steak frites but it gets dicey if you order the fish). Both were lovely and had great atmosphere. We aren't huge fans of the food at Church and State...very French, very odd combinations, and pretty expensive for the amount of food you get. It was fun though and we'd go back for a glass of wine and maybe even split the steak frites because this was a delicious dish (hard to mess up and who doesn't love a good steak and potatoes soaked in grease/salt!)

Outside Reservoir

Kenzie, Nancy "Birthday Girl", Russ & Ang

It was a really nice visit and we are very blessed to have such great family. Speaking of family, we also helped my sister move into her own super-cute place in Santa Monica. Hello beach parties and hanging out on the west side! It's uber cute with adorable coved ceilings, crown molding, lots of awesome hardware from Anthropologie and the living room looks just big enough for Russ and I to crash on post a long day at the beach :)

We also had a chance to meet up with our friend Emily down in Hermosa Beach. Unfortunately, we couldn't visit as long as we'd have liked because we had a birthday party back up North but it was great to see her and spend some time catching up.

We finished our weekend off with a game of tennis, of which I kicked Russ' butt! He seems to think it's possible to beat me but let's face it...I'm a machine :)

Ang "the machine" and Russ picnicing post tennis match